For the last month or so our internet connection has been going down after a few hours of use. The fix was to do away with the splitter between the cable modem and the TV. One might think a permanent solution is to replace the splitter or cables, but that didn’t prove to be the problem. If I didn’t need access for work a few hours of use might be good enough but with no internet when working from home means not getting anything done and messing with it every other day needed to stop.

I was frustrated enough at the beginning of the week I ran another line from the junction box in the garage to get away from splitting at a TV. There are three lines that run from it to various parts of the house and one of those runs is split a second time. If I didn’t run another line I’d always be splitting the signal again and that was the only piece I hadn’t replaced or taken out yet. I figured it wouldn’t be to difficult since the splitter in the junction box already had four outputs, one was empty, and I had a quality cable long enough for the 25ft run. I guessed it would take 20 minutes, it was more like 2 hours.

The delay was a first for me, stripped connection on the splitter after threading the cable leaving pieces of the male connection from the splitter still in the cable end.

In other words thread a bolt onto a nut, cut the head off then drill a hole through the bolt (long ways) leaving it still threaded on the nut.

After about 15 minutes of trying to unthread what was left on the cable end I gave up. It was off to Home Depot to get a new splitter and cable end. The only problem with what I picked up was the cable end is to be crimped on and I don’t have a crimper…. needle nose pliers didn’t work either, but that could have been operator error. So I’ll have to replace that end at some point with a twist on. For now it is doing the job (I couldn’t get just one end as they come in packages of two or more).

I don’t know what changed to start this the cable modem was in the same place for months before, but none the less there has been no down time this week. The only draw back is it puts the router in the basement and I work two stories up. The signal is not bad but if I have to switch to VOIP, via Cisco’s Soft Phone, for work that might put a kink in things. So if your having problems keeping you connection up limit the number of splits between the junction box and the cable modem, it has worked for me.

Yesterday my connection started going up and down just after lunch. I figured something was going on and decided not to call, I hate calling the ISP to get that stupid user treatment. Things were fine in the evening so I didn’t think much of it. Then this morning it went down again, but didn’t come back up. So this time I called to check on outages, none in the area. I headed to a nearby coffee shop for some lunch and to check email. Since it was still down when I came back it was down to the cable modem and start testing. After swapping cables and no change I checked the television boxes and picture quality was horrible on the DVR and the HD channels were not coming in.

Since their are a number of cables running around I figured I’d go to the source and test at the junction box in the garage. When I opened it up their was a three way splitter that ran lines to separate parts of the house. This was confusing at first since the line was split again in another room in the basement, what for ? After connecting the modem directly to the line coming from the pole all was good. After replacing the splitter the DVR now had a clear picture and HD channels, the internet was up too.

I guess it pays to know what’s between you and the pole, for TV and internet. If I knew the line was split that many times at the junction box I forgot. But you can always fall back on tracing cables and eliminate connections. The ISP doesn’t do that type of Q and A over the phone, I don’t blame them. I recall the days of asking someone on the other end of the phone to trace a cable, it’s not fun for either side. I’ve been around long enough I should know better …. but we all get lazy sometimes !!!